Hey Team 👋

The AP preseason Top 25 is officially here, which means the college football season is close enough for us to start arguing about rankings that may or may not survive Week 1. 

The good news? The AP and Coaches Polls are almost entirely on the same page, giving us a pretty clear picture of the teams expected to be in the mix. The bad news? We still have a few weeks to wait and find out if anyone actually knows what they're talking about.

Letter Rip!

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Great Minds Rank Alike🧠

The games haven't started yet, but we already have plenty to argue about. The AP preseason Top 25 is officially here.

Do the preseason rankings matter? That’s a question we’ll probably spend the next few weeks debating. But are they fun? Absolutely, and they actually yield some interesting insights for the season ahead. 

For the most part, the AP and Coaches Poll are in lockstep.

The two polls are consistent across the Top 10, with Ohio State, Oregon and Georgia holding down the top three spots in the exact same order. Notre Dame, Texas, Indiana, Miami, Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Oklahoma round out the Top 10 in each poll, though the order isn’t quite the same.

That's actually a pretty strong consensus, especially considering we're talking about two separate groups of voters trying to predict a season that hasn't even kicked off yet.

The biggest difference comes at the bottom of the rankings.

Clemson and Louisville essentially traded places between the two polls: Clemson is No. 23 in the Coaches Poll but the first team out of the AP Poll, while Louisville is No. 24 in the AP Poll but the first team out of the Coaches Poll.

That's it. Those are the only two teams in the Top 25 that don't match between the polls.

Florida is the second team out in both, while Boise State and Arizona also received enough votes to crack the next tier of teams on each ballot.

And you guessed it: the SEC has the most ranked teams again. Nine SEC teams made both polls, compared with eight from the Big Ten and four from the Big 12. The AP has three ACC teams ranked, while the Coaches Poll has four, including Clemson.

So, do preseason polls matter? Sure. They give us a sense of who the voters believe belongs in the championship conversation and which teams are worth keeping an eye on. And right now, there isn't much disagreement.

But are they the be-all and end-all? Absolutely not. Predictions and analysis are great, but you know just as well as I do, once that first game kicks off, all bets are off. Nothing is guaranteed, and anything can happen in college football, especially in this new 12-team playoff era.

AP Preseason Top 25

1. Ohio State

2. Oregon

3. Georgia

4. Notre Dame

5. Texas

6. Indiana

7. Miami 

8. Texas A&M

9. Ole Miss

10. Oklahoma

11. LSU

12. Texas Tech

13. Alabama

14. BYU

15. USC

16. Michigan

17. Washington

18. Penn State

19. SMU

20. Tennessee

21. Utah

22. Iowa

23. Houston

24. Louisville

25. Missouri

Other Teams Receiving Votes: Clemson (112), Florida, (51), Boise State (43), Arizona (32), TCU (11), Navy (10), South Carolina (10), Illinois (9), Oklahoma State (8), Vanderbilt (8), Pittsburgh (7), Virginia Tech (6), Minnesota (5), UNLV (4), New Mexico (4), Georgia Tech (4), James Madison (3), Auburn (3), Memphis (2), California (2), Liberty (1), Western Michigan (1), Tulane (1), Virginia (1)